Alan J. Tessier is a Program Director in the Division of Environmental Biology, Directorate for Biological Sciences at the National Science Foundation (NSF). He received a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Population Biology from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the National Science Foundation, he was a Professor in the Department of Zoology and the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station at Michigan State University. During his 17-year tenure at Michigan State he maintained a research program in aquatic ecology and evolutionary biology, served as principal investigator on more than a dozen NSF research awards and authored more than 50 peer-reviewed publications.

At NSF, Dr. Tessier currently serves as Division Director (acting) for the Division of Environmental Biology. He served as Executive Secretary and Chair of the Working Group for the Environmental Research and Education coordination activity at NSF from 2006 to 2010, as Deputy Division Director in the Division of Environmental Biology during 2006-2007, and during 2013-2015, and as Program Director in the Population and Community Ecology Cluster of that division since 2004. He has served on several interdisciplinary programs including the Research Coordination Networks, the Interdisciplinary Training for Undergraduates in the Biological and Mathematical Sciences, Sustainability Research Networks, INSPIRE, and the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems. He led a joint EPA-NSF working group to establish a Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, and served as the managing Program Director for the two centers awarded from that competition from 2008-2015.